Olso is planning on increasing its cycling mode share to 16% by 2025 by investing to $2.1 Billion (Kr13.8 billion) to create a network of 510km of cycling infrastructure.

From Cycling Industry News:

Once completed, the updated network will place 85% of citizens within 200 metres of a cycle path.

Within the inner city, eight key routes will cover 50 km and will form key commuter arteries. The announcement adds that the bulk of these will be suitable for riders aged 2 to 80 years, suggesting that these will be segregated from traffic flows.

More here.

Norway is also planning on investing $1.25 billion on cycling highways. Clearly, Norway is setting a great example that BC and Canada should follow. 

Please sign the petition and share it with your friends.

Congratulations to new London Mayor Sadiq Khan on his historic victory. During the campaign he promised to double the annual cycling budget to £164m ($305 million CAN). Cycling is a form mass transport that requires serious investment.

As London's population was 8.4 million in 2012, that amounts to around $36 per person per year, almost the $40 per person per year invested in the Netherlands. If BC was to invest at the same rate, that would amount to around $165 million per year. Time for British Columbia to follow the lead of the British and invest in cycling for everyone.

Please sign the Billon for Bikes petition and donate so we can reach a lot more people.

London is investing relatively large amounts in cycling is because it is really their only near term option. They are expanding transit capacity but these efforts are both very expensive and can take decades to complete. TfL commissioner, Peter Hendy states:

capacity on London's transport network would be improved far more quickly and cheaply, and with positive effects on the cycle routes, than other schemes on the horizon such as Crossrail 2.

Even back in 2013, bicycles accounted for 24% of vehicles in London's morning rush hour. London's cycling commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, told the Guardian:

Cycling is clearly a mass mode of transport in central London and until now it hasn't been treated as such.

Nearly all provision for cycling is based on the presumption that hardly anyone cycles, that you can make do with shoving cyclists to the side of the road and that just clearly is wrong.

Sadiq Khan has also said:

"I am committed to continuing the investment in the Cycle Superhighways programme and upgrading existing segregated cycle ways to a higher standard. I also want to roll out more 20mph zones in residential areas, having long campaigned for their introduction in my own constituency of Tooting. Moreover, I would be strongly in favour of adopting a variant of the Idaho Law and I have pledged to revise the list of junctions in need of immediate attention, prioritising improving those where the most deaths and accidents have occurred. Doing this is absolutely essential because Londoners must be able to move around their city with confidence and as safely and efficiently as possible.

More here. 

Advocates are calling for 10% of the 40 year $120 billion sales tax proposal on L.A. County's November ballot to be spent on cycling and walking Currently, only $5.4 billion is being proposed for cycling and walking.

Research from other counties and Metro's own "Strategic Plan" for active transportation estimates a funding need of $740 million to $1.7 billion per year for biking and walking projects, Butler said.

Walking and biking combined make up almost a fifth of all trips taken in the county and disproportionately account for nearly 40 percent of traffic fatalities.

Metro's ballot measure proposal would fund completion of the L.A. River bike path between downtown L.A. and the west San Fernando Valley and the City of San Fernando bike path along the Pacoima Wash.

More here.

$12 billion US is $15 billion Canadian. The population of L.A. County is 10 million or around 2.5 times greater than BC's making $6 billion the equivalent amount per person. Over 10 years, that would be $1.25 billion. Currently only 1% of people in L.A. cycle work, less than half the 2.1% in BC.

So, lets make the same kind of bold investment in cycling. Please sign the Billion for Cycling and Walking petition to help everyone in BC cycle for their daily trips. And please help us reach more cycling supporters by donating to our campaign!

Norway has just announced a new network of bicycle highways to fight GHG emissions. They will connect inner cities to outer suburbs enabling long distance cycling commuting.

From City Lab:

As part of a plan announced last week, the country will spend a massive 8 billion Norwegian Kroner ($1.25 billion CAN) creating 10 broad, two-lane, cross-country bike tracks in and near Norway’s nine largest cities, allowing longer-distance cyclists to travel with a speed and safety hitherto impossible. A key component of plans to slash Norway’s transit emissions by half, the bike highway scheme still faces some resistance. Not only is cycling in Norway relatively uncommon by Scandinavian standards, but the new highways will be constructed in a mountainous country that is cold and dark for much of the year.

These broad, twin-lane tracks will do more than offer protection, per se. They’ll allow cyclists to speed up safely, riding at up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour and thus making longer commutes feasible. If they succeed, they should take pressure off roads and public transit and help to cut Norway’s fossil fuel use.

The investment should be worth it—if healthier Norwegians cycle around an increasingly car-free country with low- or zero-emission vehicles as a standard, schemes like the bike highway may end up paying for themselves.

Norway has around 5 million people, only around 10% more than BC. Plus the climate is similar and their current levels of cycling are not that much higher than ours.

Time for BC to follow Norway's lead and invest $1 billion in cycling including similar bicycle highways to help address Climate Change and reduce congestion. Please sign the petition and share it with your friends.